Navigating Maps of Memories

The main purpose of this essay is to present and discuss a hypothesis concerning the semiotic and cultural transformation of the ideas of ‘map’ and ‘mapping’. Today, in our society, maps work more like navigation logs than traditional charts. What does this mean and what does this new dimension of mapping mean? We will try to investigate these issues not only as a theoretical hypothesis, but also through the observation of a corpus of maps drawn by a group of young students coming from a homogeneous geographical area (North Eastern Italy). We will develop this analysis using semiotic and socio-ethno-semiotic tools, taking into account the possible influence that social media and technologies, such as mobile phones, other digital media and devices (like google maps, etc.) might have had on the authors of maps and their mapping activities. Drawing on visual cultural anthropology, and ethnography, and particularly Oliver Sack’s work on memory, the first part of this study will be devoted to a definition of the ‘map’, and of ‘mapping activity’, with particular reference to their transformation from traditional mapping to digital and locative media. In this first part reference will be made to the main literature on this subject, from Cognition studies and their connections with recent Visual Studies, to Sociology of techniques sociological methodology and Science and Technology Studies (in particular Bruno Latour’s works). Finally, in last part of this essay, some analysis of maps of places of origins drawn by students will be provided.